Addressing the Roadblocks to Widescale EV Adoption

Our Connected World | TE Connectivity

Headlines about electric vehicles are littering the news. This week highlighted EVs capable of off-roading, changes in California law, and President Biden’s approval of $900M funding for charging (Reuters). “Much of the driving force behind this transformation from internal combustion engine to battery electric vehicle has been environmental sustainability,” said Qiong Sun, Vice President of Automotive E-mobility at TE Connectivity. According to CNBC, a range of studies suggest that if all vehicles were electric, it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by sixteen percent.

Despite the popularity in headlines, the general public has been slow to adopt EVs. Streamlining and increasing production as well as increasing battery range, affordability, and infrastructure are key to reaching widescale adoption. “Today, many of the innovations are focusing on scaled production and cost reduction to converge with the cost of the traditional internal combustion engine vehicle,” said Qiong. EV architecture has a massively reduced number of parts. Fewer parts mean easier maintenance because fewer things can go wrong and access to replacements is quicker if they do.

“The battery is the heart of the EV. And further improvements in range, time to charge, and cost are all significant and necessary to get a wider range of consumer acceptance. Many of those battery innovations in the past two decades have focused on increasing the energy density of the lithium battery, which directly translates to the EV drive range,” said Qiong. The companies that develop or integrate battery innovations are sure to hold an advantage in the market. But they’ll have to move fast. A Harvard-backed start-up claims to invented a battery that charges in three minutes (CNBC).

The current electric vehicle market and average consumer landscape do not meet diverse consumer needs. Charging stations are a significant hurdle in general EV adoption (Reuters). Listen to the episode to hear more about TE Connectivity’s insights on electric vehicle innovation and the company’s efforts to support widescale adoption. Subscribe to the series wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more on TE.com: https://bit.ly/3BmSIhB